Rockies 8, Giants 7: The sweep. All due to late comebacks against the Giants’ pen. Here it was Justin Morneau with an eighth inning double on Javier Lopez to drive in two of the Rockies’ four runs during the rally. The Giants sell out all of their games these days, but no one except Colorado expatriates left happy this weekend.

Diamondbacks 6, Dodgers 3: Paul Goldschmidt and Miguel Montero homered which, combined with some dumb plays by the Dodgers, helped the Dbacks overcome an abbreviated-by-elbow-pain Bronson Arroyo start. Maybe it’s best that it was abbreviated. I had this one on for three innings and Vin Scully told us the “Arroyo knows 150 songs on the guitar” story twice. If he had gone the distance I’m afraid Vin would’ve had go do his “Uggla means ‘owl’ in Swedish” story even though the Braves weren’t in town.

Mariners 5, Rangers 1: Hisashi Iwakuma overgame some pregame neck stiffness to help the Mariners end a five-game losing streak.Kyle Seager had four hits and three RBI. Seager kills the Rangers. This season he’s 19 for 48 with three home runs and 12 RBI against Texas.

Athletics 10, Yankees 5: Derek Norris and Coco Crisp each hit three-run homers early in the game to make this one a laugher. Between that and Jesse Chavez carrying a shutout into the sixth, Oakland was up 10-0 after four innings. Also: Carlos Beltran was called out for abandoning his base pursuant to Rule 7.08 at one point. Dude thought there were three outs when there were only two and he was walking back to the dugout. That’s always special to see.

Rays 4, Astros 3: David Price struck out 10 and the Rays got their first series win in weeks. Bo Porter did that “move Tony Sipp to the outfield for one batter and then move him back to the mound” thing. Amazingly, that doesn’t ensure victory.

Cubs 3, Phillies 0: Travis Wod had a n0-hitter into the sixth and pitched eight shutout innings in all. This was the Cubs’ first road series win since last September.

Royals 6, White Sox 3: A three-run homer for Sal Perez and a series sweep for the Royals. That’s seven straight wins for Kansas City and eight of nine. A couple weeks ago we were wondering whether Ned Yost would be fired. Now they’re one and a half back of the Tigers.

Marlins 3, Pirates 2: Casey McGehee tied the game in the eighth inning with a two-out, two-run double, then drove home the winning run with a walkoff sacrifice fly in the 10th. Meanwhile, Gregory Polanco, had two hits and his hitting .387 since being called up. Which is kind of fun.

Indians 3, Red Sox 2: Two days, two 3-2 comeback wins for the Indians. This courtesy of a Nick Swisher homer in the 11th. The Red Sox left a ton of runners on base.

Mets 3, Padres 1: When the Mets face the Padres and four runs are scored, it’s officially an offensive outburst. Bobby Abreu had an RBI double in this battle between two deadball era teams.

Blue Jays 5, Orioles 2: J.A. Happ allowed one run in six innings and Dioner Navarro had three hits and two RBI to help the Jays earn the split. And since they were in first place in front of Baltimore, a split is kind of a win. Or something.

Tigers 4, Twins 3: The second walkoff sac fly of the day. This one wouldn’t have happened if Oswaldo Arcia hadn’t dropped the previous fly ball, which allowed Torii Hunter to go from first to third and set up for J.D. Martinez‘ subsequent game-winner. Arcia had a horrible defensive weekend overall, messing up some on Saturday too.

Braves 7, Angels 3: The Angels jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but that’s all they’d get as the Braves put up a four-run sixth inning and then won it going away. Tommy La Stella was 3 for 3 with two RBI. He’s hitting .411 in the 16 games since he’s been called up. Been nice knowing ya, Dan Uggla. Which means “owl.”

Great crowds at the games in Baltimore this weekend. A very good slide by Bautista at the plate. I still think that he was safe. The replay officials had a tough call, but I think they got it wrong. Happ continues to surprise me. He did not walk anyone yesterday. The Jays won despite not hitting a home run. The only 2 AL East teams that won yesterday were Toronto and Tampa Bay. That works for me. The Jays next face the Evil Empire on Tuesday.

That was one ugly outing by Nuno yesterday. Unfortunately it was one of several he’s had since given the opportunity to start. I’m all in favor of the Yankees sending him to the pen or back to the minors. They should give someone else a chance possibly even stretching out Warren and bringing up one of the kids to man the bullpen. But enough of Nuno already for this Yankees fan. In case I forgot the offense wasn’t very good either. All in all pretty much nothing went right or good for the Yankees on Sunday. Just telling it like I see it.

I’m sure you do and seeing over the past few years how loyal Girardi is to his players I wouldn’t be surprised if he is around then. But I can always cross my fingers and hope.

proudlycanadian - Jun 16, 2014 at 6:30 AM

Me too.

uyf1950 - Jun 16, 2014 at 7:22 AM

proudly, my friend. What was the name of that poster that always used to shall I say “diss” on the Jays? I can’t seem to remember his moniker, we hve seen him around in a while.

proudlycanadian - Jun 16, 2014 at 7:27 AM

I wont give you the dirt on him. Since he was banned by Craig, I decided that it is best not to mention him. On occasion, his thumbprint appears, but that is all he can do.

nbjays - Jun 16, 2014 at 7:25 AM

Uyf, I envy you, buddy. If only I could forget Dirtyharry as easily as that…

Old Gator - Jun 16, 2014 at 11:06 AM

And I shall be there, in my gross corporeal form, for the Feather Lice-Borg game on the evening of the 25th, with a bellyful of Caplansky’s smoked meat sandwiches and cabbage borscht, remaining scrupulously neutral and trying to stay awake through a designatedhitterball contest for the sake of my eminent companions.

@nbjays, being able or shall I say being unable to remember a lot of things is both a blessing and curse of age. Like I said to “proudly”, good luck to you guys just not to much of it over the course of the next 10 days to 2 weeks.

Now that’s not true. Whitley has been like a breath of fresh air for the Yankees since he was called up. And while I will admit Phelps has been inconsistent he has also thrown some very nice games. As has Kuroda unfortunately all most fans including myself seem to remember are the dogs.

Phelps has only been consistent when the Yeankees scores first in the early goings, and if the opposite happens (opposing teams gains the early avantage), then I’d better turn off my tv now lol. He did pitch some nice games but the worse ones are much more many making it more memorable than his good starts.

And MG!? How can I forget Shirley!? Guys a stud! Alright it’s “half of them” are horrible.

One of my favorite statistics for pitching is xFIP, because it attempts to filter out the effects of luck, run support, defense, and park factors when it comes to pitching performance. The number is scaled to tell you what the pitcher’s ERA would be in a neutral setting. One of the main things it filters out is home runs per fly ball allowed.

According to xFIP, Nuno and Phelps have performed virtually identically. And none too well. Kuroda and Whitley have performed about the same as each other, albeit with Kuroda having started 14 games to Whitley’s 6. They have been a half-point better than Nuno and Phelps.

Of course, it shows that Tanaka has been the ace of aces. I don’t think it’s too early to state that if he can stay healthy, he could be an all-time great.

It also shows that CC pitched better than his results would suggest. 23.8% of the fly balls that CC allowed turned into home runs. This is a ridiculously high rate, and if he had stayed healthy that rate would have surely gone down over time. So far The Talented Mr. Whitley has allowed only 2.4% home runs per fly ball. This will surely rise over time, no one is that good or that lucky. The average performance is 9.5%. Of course, even at that rate, Whitley would be a decent major league starter. No alarm bells there.

So in terms of time budgeting since you are a busy student, Ares, obviously you should watch every Tanaka start. Kuroda and Whitley starts are safe to begin watching at least, and Phelps and Nuno are to be avoided at all costs.

So a split with the 1st place Jays in this weekend’s series leave the O’s no closer than they were a week ago. But I gotta say, it was a very competitive series from both teams. While the bats may have been in check for both teams (unless Hunter was on the mound) the pitching was phenomenal. I was glad to see continued quality starts from the O’s, something we lacked earlier in the season.

On a side note, I am totally over the Hundley experiment. Just keep running Caleb Joseph out there to catch. His bat is much better than what Hundley brings to the dish and he’s better defensively than Hundley. Not to say it was a bad trade, but I don’t think they had this in mind when shipping Patton out.

The Royals success is directly related to their hitting (As with most teams, really)
Hosmer and a few bats become zesty and they ride a nice patch of games. Shields is awesome and the back end of the bullpen with Davis and Holland are as good as it gets in MLB.
But…
They still have Ned and David Moore (and Rex)…are three negatives a positive?

There have been a few Derek Zoolanders on the Royals this year. Not many left turns.

nbjays - Jun 16, 2014 at 8:06 AM

Actually, now that I think about it, three lefts are also a home run, but there haven’t been too many of THEM for the Royals this year, either.

kiwicricket - Jun 16, 2014 at 7:10 AM

For all the good moves and cheap talent they acquire from nowhere, the Braves really do fancy their $15M mistakes. Derek Lowe….Uggla…and now B.J Upton.

It’s rare that someone who doesn’t develop A.J.D (Andrew Jones Disease) and puff up like a wasp stung testicle, figure to suck ballz so badly.
He literally can’t catch the ball properly. Disrupts other outfielders by lack of communication, insists on running into them….and then there is his ‘hitting’.

Craig is too nice to say it (whaaaaa?), but the Nats got swept by the Cards and have now lost four straight. Tim Kurkjian and Buster Olney, who have apparently NEVER seen a major-league season before, declared last week that the Nats would “run away with the division and never let loose of first place for the rest of the year.” Erp.

My own feeling is the Nats are the same team they were when they were “hot,” except now they’re “cold,” having lost Wilson Ramos for a couple of weeks, fatigued from the West Coast trip, minor dings, etc. Home-cookin’, an off-day Monday, plus Gio back on Wednesday and the Astros will hopefully heal some ills. Not that the Stros are that bad, you have to consider them a major-league team nowadays.

P.S. Ryan Zimmerman played first base. Anthony Rendon is tearing it up at third, producing one Web gem after another. My money says we don’t see Zim at the hot corner no matter what Matty Williams claims he’s going to do when Bryce Harper gets back.

Nats, Braves and Feesh have all gone 5-5 in their last 10, so while the Nats have not run away with things, neither has their 4-game skid really done anything to hurt them. The mediocrity is being shared evenly.

@renaado: Brewers fan, are ya? I’ll be there! Going to the Midwest for a family reunion which involves a barbeque on Tuesday and me going to as many Brewers and Cubs games as I can fit in (hopefully all of them).

Ha! Your description of Olney and Kurkjian as having “apparently NEVER seen a major-league season before” is perfect. They talk with awe and wonder about things that are interesting (or not) but that happen EVERY year, usually multiple times, as if it is the first time such a thing has ever happened in the history of MLB.

The Cards pitching has been unbelievable of late, if they start getting the hitting everyone expected from them before the season started you’re looking at a very dangerous team. I would love to watch an NLCS involving the Giants and Cardinals. Need to catch the Brewers first though.

One really interesting turn of events for the Cardinals so far this season is the return and effective pitching of Jaime Garcia after his shoulder surgery. Most folks who follow the Cards were certain the surgery would end his career or if he did manage to come back, would make him a shell of his former self. He has looked pretty much as good as ever in his first six starts back, he did have a clinker vs KC, but has gone 7 in four of the six games.

The Twins really helped us out yesterday. We’d have fared far worse if it were not for some bobbles, drops, and unseen flies. Thankfully, the P-man was good and didn’t have to be pulled early. I don’t think I could’ve taken the Keystone Cops on the mound again so soon; I had enough stress seeing Nathan again already. It’s the last out that takes forever. I may be 90 when this season is over. It was nice to get another win though. Next up is the Royals, which hopefully may leave us a little farther apart in the standings at the end. Also, we will make up one of the 5-6 games we are behind most everyone else. Eat ‘em up, Tigers.

See? See? I talk trash and the Twins blow it for me. Arcia definitely helped you out there yesterday.

BTW, at the end of the game when Fein threw his glove after the winning run scored, I had an interesting thought. Is there an unwritten rule that says it’s okay for a pitcher to throw his glove in disgust? What if position players did the same thing when pitchers stunk up the joint?

If position players got to throw their gloves at closers for blowing the save, Valverde would’ve run the gauntlet every game when he was with us….hmmmm, perhaps we should bring back public humiliation as punishment. I hope they do some socialization in the clubhouse at least.

Don’t be so hard on Arcia. His was a gift, but Fuld & Co. contributed as well.

unclemosesgreen - Jun 16, 2014 at 11:19 AM

A gauntlet of gauntlets? This public humiliation fantasy brought to you by the Unintentionally Repetitious Department of Accidental Redundancies.

The Royals are 1.5 out and have a 4 game set with Detroit this week. However, the Royals have yet to beat the Tigers this season in 5 tries. The Royals were one of the only teams to have a winning record against Detroit last year. This season may get really fun for Royals fans if things go well this week.

Two observations: 1. That Yankees line up is like an all star team! An all star team from 2005, but an all star team nonetheless. 2. Why do Yankees fans buy replica jerseys with players names on the back?

So I make the case, eloquently and supported by statistics, for moving Casey McGehee to the second spot in the Feesh’s lineup, and the son of a parthenogenic perrita goes and drives in all three Feesh runs against the Pirates from his ill-suited cleanup slot. I don’t appreciate being embarrassed, Casey. Not even by someone who has eaten blowfish in the Ginza, which makes us a camaraderie of culinary spirit.

I’m also stubborn as a Galapagos tortoise chasing a strawberry being held just out in front of me suspended by a piece of fishing line from a pole being held by some horrible child sitting on my carapace at a local petting zoo. Of course Casey gets all kinds of undeserved opportunities to drive in runs, because if the Iron Giant comes up with, say, someone on first, he gets peetched around and pushes the guy to second or maybe the guy on second to third at the same time, giving Casey and his anemic slugging percentage abundant chances to drive in runs with a slap single or dribbler down the line. Hell, an owl could drive in 43 runs by this point in the season if stacked in the same position, you know? One shudders to imagine how many ribbies the Iron Giant would have by now if he had someone else who could park one in the stands batting behind him, and I believe that Ozuna, with 42 ribbies batting sixth or seventh, would have close to 50 by now himself, if not more. I repeat: McGehee should be batting second. Ozuna and his twenty five to thirty home run power should be batting cleanup.

Good on Henderson Alvarez to show the deteriorating Feesh starting rotation how it ought to be done, as though they were all suffering from some sort of prion-vectored short term memory displacement they brought back from the cramped showers at Wrigley. Fortunately, though, when you hear the sound of goats issuing from the basement of Macondo Banana Massacre field, they’re just begging for last rites before the staff houngans and santeras dispatch them to please the lwa. Scrooge McLoria will try anything that doesn’t involve a guaranteed contract and disability insurance payments.

At the Mausoleum yesterday normal service was resumed. Ten runs allowed Melvin to mix in some “B” relievers with a couple of the “A” guys. Of course, Jim Johnson gave up 2 ER to bring his ERA to 6.18. Reminds me of teh pitching version of the Matt Holliday deal a few years ago, when Holliday looked lost in left and every emanation seemed to say “get me out of here”. Not sure what the A’s can get for Johnson, but rumor is they are trying to find out.

Still, the A’s took 2/3 from the Yankees, who’s fans swelled attendance to 102 % of capacity in each of the 3 games. That’s a lot of sewage for the creaky O.Co pipes, so we are all on the look-out for “issues” before Texas series begins tonight.